A 67-year-old Westchester cookbook author was convicted today of luring young women from overseas to work as au pairs and then sexually abusing them.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors said that Joseph Yannai specifically hired recent high school graduates from countries such as Hungary, Mexico, and Denmark, and preyed on their naivete to take physical advantage of them.

The young women – mostly between the ages of 18-22 – were hired to serve as editorial assistants for Yannai’s writing and book publishing activities and to assist with household chores between 2003-2009.

During their employment at the $800,000 Pound Ridge home Yannai shares with his wife, he required the young women to wear scanty clothing, fore-go wearing bras, pressured them to have sex, and groped their breasts and buttocks, prosecutors say.

After deliberating for two days, the Brooklyn federal court jury convicted Yannai of multiple charges of luring the women to travel to the US for immoral purposes, forced labor violations, and inducing aliens to illegally enter and reside in the US, among other charges.

Yannai faces up to 80 years in prison when he sentenced by Judge Edward Korman.

As the verdict was read, Yannai listened via a remote telephone link as he lay in bed in a Westchester County hospital, while under guard by US Marshals.

Earlier this week, Yannai attempted suicide just as jurors were about to start their deliberations, officials said.

It marked the second time since Yannai’s arrest last year that the vanity book publisher and writer has tried to take his own life.

Jurors appear to reject defense arguments that the young women were never coerced into having sex with Yannai, but were actually consensual partners.

US Attorney Loretta Lynch said the verdict sent a signal to predators.

“The defendant exploited and degraded his victims for criminal sexual purposes,” Lynch said. “The message to those who would engage in similar criminal conduct could not be clearer – you will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”